The truth about eggs

Okay I’m not a nutritionist or a holistic health coach but I do know a bit about what foods are good for you and what are not!  A personal interest in getting green and healthy, in growing what food I can on my balcony, and studying ‘Food as Medicine’ as part of the Master of Wellness, has enabled me to be a conscious consumer, to research what is good and what is bad and most importantly NOT to take as gospel what industry and governments say about our food and what we should eat.

The typical food pyramid promoted by health authorities is rubbish….is that harsh?…then perhaps its best to say that… it’s incomplete!  For an alternative and holistic view of what we should be eating …still in the pyramid form though…the University Of Michigen Integrative Medicine website offers this alternative.

healing_foods_pyramid

Eggs are good for you in so many ways

On a recent holiday with friends the lodge staff  were making us a different version of eggs daily and they were delicious! I indulged in 1 a day!  A friend passed a comment that although he was enjoying his eggs he was a little concerned about eating them everyday because of the high cholesterol,  to which I disagreed and suggested that eggs may in fact provide good cholesterol…which of course spurred me on to write this post to set the record straight.

It has been found that eggs and yolks in particular do not appear to increase blood cholesterol, which is associated with the risk of heart attacks and strokes, but rather, eating whole eggs may actually increase the good cholesterol (HDL).

Eggs are a good source of nearly all essential nutrients with good quality omega 3 fats and 6 gms of protien.  Egg yolks are one of the richest sources of choline, a B-complex vitamin, which plays a role in the prevention of liver disease, aids in preserving memory and may reduce inflammation. Whilst egg white’s are consider the gold standard for comparison with other proteins.

Eggs you should eat

Now it is probably relevant to note that not all eggs are made the same!

For your own nutritional health and wellness, and in support of healthy and ethical farming practices I suggest buying free range and organic eggs.  Well you might say that free range and organic is not all the same either and I would agree….so be a conscious consumer, read labels, ask questions about the sort of free range that is advertised on the packaging, and what sort of organic feed is fed to the chickens.

In Hong Kong our choices are limited especially if you are on a budget but I prefer NZ brand FRENZ eggs, because the packaging tells me how the chickens are fed and kept.

Make your egg consumption both nutritious and ethical.

Be well

 

Sources:

Harvard Health Letter July 2006

Huffington Post

Mutungi, G., Ratliff, J., et al, Dietary Cholesterol from Eggs Increases Plasma HDL Cholesterol in Overweight Men Consuming a Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet, J. Nutr. February 2008vol. 138 no. 2 272-276